Thromb Haemost 2009; 102: 792–794 Dear Sir, Shape change is one of the earliest visible responses after platelet activation with a soluble agonist or following contact with an adhesive substratum (1). Platelet shape change is a composite of several distinct morphological changes. Early observations reported that ADP-activated platelets undergo transformation from a smooth discoid shape, to disc...

Growth cones are dynamic, actin-rich structures at the tips of developing axons that lead the axon to its correct target by responding to extracellular guidance cues. In general, attractive cues are thought to stimulate growth cone actin assembly, while repulsive cues induce actin depoly-merization. McConnell et al. fi nd, however , that Slit ligands repel dorsal root ganglion (DRG) axons by in...

Zyxin is an evolutionarily conserved protein that is concentrated at sites of cell adhesion, where it associates with members of the Enabled (Ena)/vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) family of cytoskeletal regulators and is postulated to play a role in cytoskeletal dynamics and signaling. Zyxin transcripts are detected throughout murine embryonic development, and the protein is widely ...

Fibronectin/integrin-mediated signaling plays a key role in the regulation of adhesion, migration and metastasis of tumors. Numerous studies have addressed the significance of the association between integrin and RhoA, but the exact mechanism is unclear. Results from laboratories, including ours, have demonstrated that PKA inhibits the activity and function of RhoA. This study was designed to i...

A reduction of the nitric oxide (NO) action in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) could play a role in the vascular damage induced by the glycaemic excursions occurring in diabetic patients; in this study, we aimed to clarify whether a short-term incubation of cultured VSMC with high glucose reduces the NO ability to increase cGMP and the cGMP ability to phosphorylate VASP at Ser-239. We obser...

We have previously provided evidence that hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) stimulates soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) under conditions where it relaxes isolated endothelium-removed bovine pulmonary arteries (BPAs). Since it was recently reported that H(2)O(2) induces coronary vasorelaxation associated with a nitric oxide/cGMP-independent thiol oxidation/subunit dimerization-elicited activation of p...

OBJECTIVES Controversy has been prompted based on drug interaction between proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and aspirin/clopidogrel leading to weakened effects. However, whether such interaction was drug-specific or class effect remains controversial. This study predicted the impact of esomeprazole and rabeprazole on efficacy of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT). METHODS This study, involving 150...

In this study, we have investigated the effects of total saponin from Korean red ginseng (TSKRG) on thrombin-induced platelet aggregation. TSKRG dose-dependently inhibited thrombin-induced platelet aggregation with IC50 value of about 81.1 μg/mL. In addition, TSKRG dose-dependently decreased thrombin-elevated the level of cytosolic-free Ca(2+) ([Ca(2+)]i), one of aggregation-inducing molecules....

Cell migration and cell-cell communication involve the protrusion of actin-rich cell surface projections such as lamellipodia and filopodia. Lamellipodia are networks of actin filaments generated and turned over by filament branching through the Arp2/3 complex. Inhibition of branching is commonly agreed to eliminate formation and maintenance of lamellipodial actin networks, but the regulation o...

Motivation: Increasingly, cost-effective high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies are being utilized to sequence human pedigrees to elucidate the genetic cause of a wide variety of human diseases. While numerous tools exist for variant prioritization within a single genome, the ability to concurrently analyze variants within pedigrees remains a challenge, especially should there be no prior ...